Struggling with Shared Account Password Management in your organization? You’re not alone. Managing multiple users’ access to shared digital resources is a daunting task that poses various security risks. Read on to learn why Shared Account Password Management is more critical than ever, and how you can implement effective strategies using Passpack.
For many IT managers at growing businesses an often-asked question is, how do you control and monitor access to all the shared digital assets in a corporation so that all authorized users – and only authorized users – have access to the resources they need to do their jobs?
The solution is a centralized team password management software application like Passpack to control shared account.
Why Shared Account Password Management Is Necessary?
The short answer is because they must. Sharing passwords is necessary for team-based collaboration and for employees to access common resources and information such as customer databases, Google docs, OneDrive files, training materials, social media accounts, and other assets.
It would simply be untenable to manage unique passwords for each user and every resource. Think of the drain on IT resources just to reset forgotten passwords, plus the lost productivity while users wait for re-authorization.
As employees come and go, it would be impossible to guarantee the security of company data against breaches without constantly resetting everyone’s credentials.
Now add in the multitude of outside partners, suppliers, sales reps, and others who need access to company systems and the attack surface is multiplied – especially if these people are left to their own devices to create and manage their own passwords.
Shared account password management is defined as the use of the same credentials by multiple users to access company data. It resolves the issues of password overload for employees and lightens IT’s burden of resetting them. But it’s not without its risks.
The Risks of Inadequate Shared Account Password Management
Individuals manage their passwords differently. Some use the same character string for every account, or create slight variations of a root password for various accounts to make them all easier to remember (a.k.a. poor password hygiene).
They may store them using unsafe methods such as a written list, a spreadsheet, or in their browser. They may share them using dangerous methods as well, like repeating them over the phone for everyone in earshot to hear or typing them into un-encrypted text messages.
Maybe someone wrote a password on a sticky note for a colleague in the next cubicle where it still sticks to their monitor’s edge for all passersby to see.
If at least one employee is engaging in these types of behaviors, then it’s safe to assume a successful malware or phishing attack is just around the corner. Now a single breach can expose all team resources, and it’s likely to spread to other corporate assets if they are guarded by similarly weak credentials.
There will be no visibility into who is responsible, necessitating a disruptive manual password reboot for the entire organization. Data may be stolen, corrupted, or held for ransom. And if the company operates in a regulated industry like financial services, telecommunications, or healthcare, there’s going to be fines to pay and reputation damage.
Even so, businesses of every size continue to practice shared passwords for common digital resources because, well, they have no choice. But they need to be able to control it.
To minimize the risk of sharing passwords within an organization, a centralized shared account password management application is required. It gives an organization total control over, and detailed visibility into, the activity of shared digital resources and accounts accessed by every user.
How Passpack Optimizes Shared Account Password Management?
The Passpack team password management application reduces a company’s risk of exposure to a breach by setting rules and creating secure workflows for the creation, sharing, and management of passwords across an entire organization. Passpack allows multiple users working in team-based environments (whether in person or remotely) to safely access shared resources without delay.
Passpack eliminates the need for written lists, securely shares passwords, speeds employee on- and off-boarding, and monitors individual user activity and histories to provide traceability in the event of a breach. Here’s how it works:
Passpack is designed around the concept of centralized administrator control. That means all requests for creating and changing passwords, invitations to a new digital resource, adding new users and deleting departing employees are all executed by a designated password administrator. This person grants access to users and has visibility into every user’s credentials. Users do not have access to other passwords that are not shared within their Team. Administrators have control over individual user rights, allowing some to only see passwords while granting others the ability to write or change passwords as well.
When a user requests access to another user’s resource, the request is fulfilled by the user who shares the password back to the Passpack administrator. The password is then shared out from the administrator to the requesting user and is encrypted end-to-end during transmission. It can only be decrypted on the user’s device, meaning passwords are safe while in transit and at rest.
Further, Passpack is built on a zero-knowledge architecture, meaning Passpack employees and third parties never have access to client encryption keys. The application supports two-factor authentication (TFA) for an added layer of security and provides a built-in password generator tool that allows admins to set minimum standards for the length, special character use, and strength of password strings set by users. It can even enforce rules against the use of similar or expired passwords (a.k.a. good password hygiene).
Passpack makes it extremely easy to add and remove users to shared accounts without disrupting access to other members of the team. In fact, it permits the creation of multiple discreet teams so user groups only have access to the resources they are authorized to use. And of course, Passpack has the ability to monitor and trace login activity by user, so organizations have an audit trail in the event of a breach.
Unlock the power of secure password sharing with Passpack
Passpack takes the risk out of team-based password sharing. It puts the power of managing shared resources in the hands of a single trusted administrator with 360° visibility into all password-related activity.
Team password sharing is not going away. Indeed, the larger the organization, the more prevalent it becomes. Best to get it under control now with Passpack. We offer several versatile subscription plans all at a low cost per user. Visit us at Passpack.com and try our solution free for 28 days to see how easy and affordable it is to unlock the power of secure team password sharing with Passpack.